Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1887-02-18

description Of the work Of a battery Of
six guns.
Did you ever see battery take posi-
ton?
IL hasn't the thrill of a cavalry charges
nor the grimness of a liue Of bayonets
moving slowly aud determinedly on;
but there is a peculiar excitement about
II that makes old veterans rise In their
saddles and cheer.
We have been fighting at the edge Of
the woods. Every csrtridge-box has
been emptied once or more, and one
fourth of the brigade has melted away
in dead and wounded aud missing. Not
a cheer is heard In the whole brigade.
We know that we are being driven foot
by foot; aud that when we break once
more the line will go to pieces, and the
enemy will pour through the gap.
Here comes help!
Down the crowded highway gallops
battery, withdrawn from some other
position 10 save ours. The field fence
is scattered while you could count thir-
ty, and the guns rush for the hill be-
hind US. Six horses 10 a pirce--three
riders to each gun. Over. dry bitches
where farmer would not drive u wag.
on, through clumps OF bushes, over logs
a foot thick. every horse on the gallop.
every rider lashing his team and yell.
ing-the sight behind as making US for
get the foe Ia front. The guns jump
two feet high as the heavy wheels strike
rock or log, but not a horse slackens his
pace, not cannoneer loses his seat.
Six guns. six caissons, sixty horses,
eighty men, race for the brow OF the
hill as If he who reached IL first would
be knighted.
A moment ago the battery was a con-
fused mob. We look again, and the
six guns are In position, the detached
horses are hurrying away, the ammuni-
ton chests open, and along our line
runs the command: "Give them one
more volley aud fall back TO support
the guns" We have scarcely obeyed
when boom boom. opens the battery,
and jets of fre jump down and scorch
the green trees under which we fought
and despaired.
The shattered old brigade has chance
to breathe for the first time In three
hours MS we form line and lilo down.
What grim, cool fellows those cannon
eers are Every man Is perfect ma
chine. Bullets splash dust In their faces,
but they do not vince. Bullets sing over
and around; they do not dodge. There
goes one to the earth, shot through the
head as he sponged his gun. That
machinery loses just one beat, misses
Just one cog In the wheel. aud then
works away again ~ before.
Every gun is using short-fuse shell.
The ground shakes and trembles, tue
roar shuts out all sound from line
three miles long, and the shells 20
shrieking into the swamp 10 cut trees
short of. to NOW great gaps In the bush
es. to hunt out and shatter aud mangle
men until their corpses can not be rec
ognized as human. You would think
a tornado was bowling through the for
est, followed by pillows Of hrc, and yet
men live through it-ayc, press forward
TO capture the battery. We eau hear
their shouts AS they form for the rush.
Now the shells are changed for grape
and canister, and guns are fred 50 fast
that all reports blend into one mighty
roar. The shrek Of she'll Is the wick
eldest sound in war. but nothing makes
the flesh crawl like the demoniacsl sing
ing, purriug, wbistliDg grape.sbot, and
the serpent.like biss Of canister. Mems
legs aud heads are torn from bodies,
and bodies cut In two. A round shDt
or shell takes two men out Of the rank
as it crashes through. Grape and can
ister now a swatb and pile the dead on
top Of each other.
through the smoke we soc swarm
Of men. II is not battle. line, but q
mob Of men desperate enough TO battle
their bayonets In the fame Of the guns.
Tie guns leap from the ground, almost,
a. they are depressed on the foe, snd
shrieks and screams and shouts blend
into one awful and steady cry. Twenty
men out on the battery are down, and
the firing IL interrupted. The foe sc-
cept it as sign Of wavering and come
rushing on. They are not ten feet
away when the guns give them q last
shot. That discharge picks living men
of their feet and throws them into the
swamp, blackened. bloody mass.
Up, now, as the emmy are among
the guns. There 10 silence OF ten 'ec-
onds, and then the flash and fosf OF
more than three thousand muskets and
a rush forward with nyonets. For
what? Neither on the right nor left
nor 10 front Of as IL 4 livingioe! There
are corpses around us which have been
struck by three, four and even six bull
lets, aud nowhere on this acre OF ground
Is wounded man. The wheels Of the
gun. can not move until the blockade Of
dead 10 removed. Men can not psss
from caisson to gun without climbing
over winrows OF dead. Every gun and
wheel is smesred with blood every foos
Of grass has its horrible stain.
Historians write Of the glory Of war.
Burial parties saw murder where his
torians saw glory.
Mrs. sumpkin's Oldest boy hsd gone,
West, and friend Of the family wss
making some inquiries about him.